Erkan Özgen

Purple Muslin paints a moving portrait of the Yazidi women who escaped the threats of the self-proclaimed Islamic State (ISIS) against their community in Iraq during the offensive in 2014. Living in the Ashti refugee camp in Sulaymaniyah in northern Iraq, these women recount their experiences of war, abuse and deprivation suffered before and during their forced migration. While trying to turn the camp into their new home, they carry out an ancient ritual that consists of kneeling down to carefully lay a symbolic personal object on a silk cloth, honoring their loved ones who passed away. Persecuted for centuries in their territories by the dominant Muslim communities, the Yazidis are a non-Islamic Kurdish minority whose roots go back to 2000 BC. They live mainly in northern Iraq.

Erkan Özgen (1971, Derik, Turkey) lives and works in Diyarbakir. His video and photographic works are informed by his political commitment, with a special focus on migration and human rights. Presented internationally since 2003, when he participated in the exhibition curated by René Block at Kunsthalle Fridericianum in Kassel, he was selected by Harald Szeemann to attend the first Seville Biennial in 2004, and since then he has taken part in major exhibitions and biennials, including the 22nd Biennale of Sydney in March 2020.